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Design and SAR analysis of

wearable antenna on various
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conventional and artificial
ground planes

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Citation: ALI, U. ... et al, 2017. Design and SAR analysis of wearable antenna
on various parts of human body, using conventional and artificial ground planes.

Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology, 12 (1), pp. 317-328.

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J Electr Eng Technol.2017; 12(1): 317-328 ISSN(Print) 1975-0102
http://dx.doi.org/10.5370/JEET.2017.12.1.317 ISSN(Online) 2093-7423

Design and SAR Analysis of Wearable Antenna on Various Parts

of Human Body, Using Conventional and Artificial Ground Planes

Usman Ali*, Sadiq Ullah†, Jalal Khan*, Muhammad Shafi***, Babar Kamal*, Abdul Basir*,
James A Flint** and Rob D. Seager**

Abstract – This paper presents design and specific absorption rate analysis of a 2.4 GHz wearable
patch antenna on a conventional and electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) ground planes, under normal and
bent conditions. Wearable materials are used in the design of the antenna and EBG surfaces. A woven
fabric (Zelt) is used as a conductive material and a 3 mm thicker Wash Cotton is used as a substrate.
The dielectric constant and tangent loss of the substrate are 1.51 and 0.02 respectively. The volume of
the proposed antenna is 113×96.4×3 mm3. The metamaterial surface is used as a high impedance
surface which shields the body from the hazards of electromagnetic radiations to reduce the Specific
Absorption Rate (SAR). For on-body analysis a three layer model (containing skin, fats and muscles)
of human arm is used. Antenna employing the EBG ground plane gives safe value of SAR (i.e.
1.77W/kg<2W/kg), when worn on human arm. This value is obtained using the safe limit of 2 W/kg,
averaged over 10g of tissue, specified by the International Commission of Non Ionization Radiation
Protection (ICNIRP). The SAR is reduced by 83.82 % as compare to the conventional antenna (8.16
W/kg>2W/kg). The efficiency of the EBG based antenna is improved from 52 to 74 %, relative to the
conventional counterpart. The proposed antenna can be used in wearable electronics and smart
clothing.

Keywords: Wearable, Metamaterial, Specific absorption rate, Electromagnetic bandgap

1. Introduction candidate for wearable applications due to its charac-

Antenna is the most vital component in wireless
communication system design. The rapid development in
mobile communication systems particularly Body Area
Networks (BANs) and Personal Area Networks (PANs)
demands for efficient antenna design [1]. These sensors
employees various sensors which are fixed on the cloths,
directly attached to human body or even implanted inside it.
Another potential application of wearable antenna is in
Body-Centric Wireless Communications (BCWCs) which
is used in health monitoring, military purposes, and
security applications [2]. Wearable systems are capable of
remote patient monitoring which helps the doctors in
diagnoses and control of the disease while working from
home or clinic [3].
Wearable antennas have the requirement of being flexible
and conformable to human body without disturbing his
usual actions. In the literature, most of the researchers
have proposed microstrip patch antennas the most suitable
† Corresponding Author: Dept. of Telecommunication Engineering,
University of Engineering & Technology, Peshawar, Pakistan.
(sadiqullah@uetpeshawar.edu.pk)
* Dept. of Telecommunication Engineering, University of Engineering
& Technology, Peshawar, Pakistan. (usman_ali@uetpeshawar.edu.pk)
** School of Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering,
Loughborough University, United Kingdom. (j.a.flint@lboro.ac.uk)
*** Dept. of Computer Science, Islamic University Madinah, Saudi
Arabia. (muhammad.shafi@gmail.com)
Received: May 23, 2016; Accepted: October 24, 2016
teristics of being low profile, conformal and inexpensive
[4].
Majority of wearable antennas are based on textile-
materials such as cotton, fabric, felt or jeans [5]. However
other textiles such as wash cotton, curtain cotton, polyester,
polycot, jean cotton [6], denim jeans [7], felt material [8],
Tween, panama, moleskin, fleece, Perspex [9], Velcro [10],
silk and nylon, are also used as a substrate materials. The
textile material is low-loss, inexpensive and easily available
in the market. Electro-textiles (e-textiles) are used as
conductive fabric in the design of the radiating element
and ground plane of the wearable antenna. These e-
textiles have the characteristics of a metal but are in the
form of fabric [11]. These conductive fabrics must satisfy
the requirements of high conductivity- low resistivity (less
than 1 ohm/sq.), enough flexibility to be worn pleasantly
and should be homogenous and elastic in nature. In the
literature mainly four types of conducting textiles materials
are considered, namely, Shieldit, Flectron, Pure Copper
Polyester Taffeta and Zelt [12]. The Zelt is a nylon based
material plated with copper and tin, which is relatively a
better choice due to its lower surface resistivity (<0.01
ohm/sq.) and higher conductivity of 1e+006S/m. Therefore
Zelt is used as a conducting fabric in the design of the
proposed antenna and EBG surface in this paper.
Besides material selection, bending, crumpling, stretching
and folding consequences due to the presence of human

317
Copyright ⓒ The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/
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 Design and SAR Analysis of Wearable Antenna on Various Parts of Human Body, Using Conventional and Artificial Ground Planes
body, the design of wearable antenna is a challenging task.
Wearable antennas operate in close proximity of human
body, which has a high dielectric constant and conductivity.
The presence of this high permittivity body results in
frequency detuning of the antenna from the resonant point.
When these antennas are used in close proximity to human
body, the side and backlobe radiations get penetrated and
absorbed in body tissues. The absorption of power per unit
mass of human body is evaluated by a term known as the
Specific Absorption Rate (SAR).
Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) is a measure of
electromagnetic wave penetration in human body tissues
[13]. The standard unit for SAR is watt per kilogram
(W/kg). SAR can also be considered as an “absorbed rate”
which is directly related to the electric fields at a point i.e.
2
σ E ⎛W ⎞
SAR = ⎜ ⎟ (1)
ρ ⎝ Kg ⎠
Where, σ, is the conductivity of the tissue (S/m), ρ, mass
density of tissue (Kg/m3) and E, is the root mean square
(r.m.s) of electric field strength (V/m). SAR can also be
calculated as rate of temperature rise at a given point, used
in some basic research [14]. The SAR limits for mobile
phones and similar devices are regularized and specified
internationally. The maximum safe limit of SAR specified
by the US standard is 1.6 W/kg for 1 g of tissue. The
International Commission of Non Ionization Radiation
Protection (ICNIRP) for Europe has set maximum level of
SAR as 2 W/kg for any 10 g of tissue [15].
Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) can also be defined as,
the time derivative of incremental energy (dW) dissipated
in an incremental mass (dm) in a volume (dV) of a given
density (ρ), which is described by [16].
d ⎛ dW⎞ d ⎛ dW ⎞
SAR = ⎜ ⎟ => ⎜⎜ ⎟ (2)
dt ⎝ dm
⎠ dt ⎝ ρ ( dV ) ⎟⎠
1 ⎛ dW ⎞
SAR = ⎜ (3)
ρ ⎝ dt ⎟⎠
Where, dW, is the energy absorbed, dm, the mass and dV,
is the volume element.
Wearable microstrip patch antennas show relatively
higher SAR in human body, due to their unwanted radiations
towards human body which needs to be controlled.
Therefore, researchers worked on reducing the SAR of
patch antennas by using a ferrite sheet [17] or Perfect
Electric Conductor (PEC) reflector [18] as a shielding layer
between the antenna and human body.
Recently, metamaterial surfaces have motivated antenna
engineers due to their unique electromagnetic properties
and innovative applications [19]. These surfaces are
artificially constructed surfaces having electromagnetic
properties that does not exist in nature. Metamaterial based
318 │ J Electr Eng Technol.2016; 12(1): 317-328
Electromagnetic Band Gap (EBG) surfaces restricts the
propagation of surface waves within a specific frequency
band (known as band gap) and therefore reduce the level
of unwanted backlobe radiations towards the human body.
Hence when these EBG surfaces are used as a ground
planes in the design of wearable antennas, they limit the
value of SAR to the safe level [20]. In this paper, it is
found that radiation characteristics of the conventional
antenna are highly affected in the presence of human body.
Therefore the electromagnetic behavior of the proposed
wearable antenna is analyzed and the importance of
metamaterial surfaces is clearly demonstrated in this work.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: The design
procedure and general layout of the proposed conventional
patch antenna is presented in section 2. In section 3, the
antenna is backed by a metamaterial surface and its
characteristics are compared with the conventional antenna.
Design and modeling of human body phantom (flat, arm) is
explained in section 4. Specific Absorption Rate (SAR)
analysis of the 2.4 GHz antenna on flat body phantom
and arm has been presented in section 5. Section 6
concludes the paper and gives directions for future work.
All the simulations are carried out using FDTD technique
implemented in CST Microwave Studio.
2. Conventional Patch Antenna Worn on Flat
Section of Human Body
In this section the design of conventional antenna alone
and in close proximity of human body has been discussed.
2.1 Design
In this paper, we proposed a rectangular microstrip patch
antenna for wearable applications shown in Fig. 1. The top
layer of the proposed antenna is made of 0.06 mm thicker
conducting e-textile (Zelt). The length (L) and width (W) of
this radiating layer are 48.2 and 56.5mm respectively. The
radiating layer is backed by 3 mm thicker wash cotton
based dielectric substrate layer of length (Lg=96.4 mm) and
width (Wg=113 mm). The dielectric constant (εr) and tangent
loss (δ) of wash cotton are 1.51 and 0.02 respectively. The
bottom layer is a finite 0.06 mm thicker conducting (Zelt)
Fig. 1. Geometry of traditional patch antenna on wearable
substrate
 Usman Ali, Sadiq Ullah, Jalal Khan, Muhammad Shafi, Babar Kamal, Abdul Basir, James A Flint and Rob D. Seager

ground plane, having identical dimensions (length and respectively. Due to the simulation complexity the amount
width) as that of the substrate. Microstrip inset feeding is of water content in these layers has not been considered.
used for the excitation of the antenna. The inset feed depth The proposed 2.4 GHz wearable antenna is fixed on a 180
(yo) and width (wo) are 17.13 mm and 11 mm respectively. mm×160 mm flat body-phantom, in order to study its
The dimensions of the patch antenna as well as feed line radiation characteristics in close proximity to human body.
are found using the standard transmission line theory [21]. Various field parameters i.e. gain, return loss and
radiation pattern of the proposed antenna in flat state, are
C compared under ON and OFF body conditions. The return
W=
2 (4) loss of the microstrip patch antenna is -36.67 and -38.76 dB
( 2 fr ) in OFF and ON body conditions respectively shown in
εr +1
Fig. 3.
0.49 c The antenna gives an acceptable bandwidth (99.6 MHz)
L= (5)
fr ε r suitable for ISM band applications in both states. The
return loss of the patch antenna in the ON-body state is
Using the model expansion analysis, the reduced inset shifted slightly towards the right side of the 2.4 GHz
feed point impedance is given approximately by: resonance frequency. The detuning of frequency is due to
the high dielectric constant property of various layers of
human body.
1 ⎛ y ⎞
Rin ( y = y0 ) = cos 2 ⎜ π × 0 ⎟ (6a) The E-plane radiation patterns of the conventional patch
2(G1 ± G12 ⎝ L⎠ antenna and antenna mounted on Flat Body phantom are
1 compared in Fig. 4. The radiation pattern of both the
Rin ( y = 0 ) = (6b)
2 ( G1 ± G12 ) antennas are adequately consistent at the desired resonance
frequency. It is clear from Fig. 4 that for the antenna worn
⎛ y ⎞
Rin ( y = y0 ) = Rin ( y = 0 ) cos 2 ⎜ π × 0 ⎟ (7) on the flat-body phantom, the peak value of gain decreased
⎝ L⎠ by (0.05dB), while directivity increased by (0.064 dBi).

The resonant input impedance depends upon the inset

feed-point distance yo. As yo increases, the input impedance
decreases. This mechanism is very effective for small
values of characteristic impedance of the order of 50 ohms.

2.2 Antenna behavior on Flat-Body Phantom

Due to the heterogeneous and lossy nature of human

body, the performance of an antenna is affected when
placed in close proximity of human body. Therefore the
performance of antenna is first evaluated in free space and
then tested for on-body flat section. For this purpose a Fig. 3. Return loss of conventional patch antenna and
three layered body phantom is designed in CST Microwave antenna on flat body Phantom
studio that consists of muscle, fat and skin as shown in Fig.
2. The average permittivity and conductivity of these layers
at 2.4 GHz are: Muscle (εr=52.79; σ =1.705), Fat (εr=5.28;
σ =0.1) and Skin (εr=31.29; σ =5.0138) [22]. The thickness
of Muscle, Fat and Skin layers are 23 mm, 8 mm and 2 mm

Fig. 2. Patch antenna mounted on the flat body Phantom of Fig. 4. Far field gain pattern of conventional antenna and
human body antenna on flat body phantom

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 Design and SAR Analysis of Wearable Antenna on Various Parts of Human Body, Using Conventional and Artificial Ground Planes
Therefore the total radiated efficiency of antenna on flat-
body phantom decreases by (1%). This is due to the higher
conductivity of the outer most layer skin. Moreover, the
antenna worn on the flat-body phantom radiate with
broader beam width (81.3 deg), compared to conventional
antenna (65.6 deg).
3. Wearable Antenna with Metamaterial Surface
This section presents the design of HIS/EBG surfaces at
2.4 GHz. These surfaces will be used as a ground plane to
improve and compare the performance of the antenna
under both ON and OFF body conditions.
3.1 Designing of metamaterial surfaces
To design a mushroom type EBG, which provide in-
phase reflection and also possess the property of surface
waves suppression. These surfaces exhibits the property of
a High Impedance Surface (HIS) within a certain frequency
band gap in which surface waves propagation is highly
restricted [23]. These surfaces have been utilized in
antenna designs for reducing the radiations in backward
direction, to increase the gain and radiation efficiency
along the boresight direction.
In this section the design and characterization of a
mushroom-like EBG structure is presented. It consists of a
metallic patch and a cylindrical via, passing through the
substrate, to connect the patch to the ground of the EBG
unit cell shown in Fig. 5. Wash cotton is used for the
substrate and Zelt material is modeled as a conducting
material for the top patch and the bottom ground plane.
(c) LC-resonant Circuit
Fig. 5. Unit-Cell geometry: (a) Top View; (b) Front View;
(c) LC-resonant circuit
320 │ J Electr Eng Technol.2016; 12(1): 317-328
The dimensions of EBG unit cell are found using the well-
known Sievenpiper’s surface design equations [24].
The above surface acts like a 2D parallel LC-resonant
circuit, the capacitance and inductance are the key elements
of the circuit. The resonance frequency and in-phase
bandwidth of the EBG depends upon the inductance L and
capacitance C, which further depends upon the geometry
and dimension of the unit cell [23]. The resonant frequency
of EBG surface is given by:
1
fr = (8)
2π LC
Where, C is the capacitance due to fringing between the
neighboring unit cells, given by:
wε 0(1+ εr ) ⎛ w+ g ⎞
C= cosh −1 ⎜ ⎟ (9)
π ⎝ g ⎠
Where, ε0 is permittivity of vacuum, w, width of the unit
cell and g, gap between neighboring unit cells. The
inductance L is directly dependent on length of metal via
(or thickness t of the substrate)
L = μ0 μ r t (10)
For the desired frequency of 2.4 GHz the optimized
dimensions of unit-cells shown in Fig. 5 are: w =
0.323λ2.4GHz, g = 0.018λ2.4GHz, where λ2.4 GHz is free
space wavelength at 2.4 GHz, via (radius) = 0.004λ2.4GHz.
Therefore, this yields the following:
L = w = 40.4 mm; g=2.2 mm; a = w + g= 42.6mm;
ε r =1.51; h=3 mm
The extent to which HIS surface suppress surface wave
can be measured by various means, i.e. dispersion diagram
or a transmission line method. In this paper a suspended
transmission line method has been taken in to conside-
ration. In this method a conducting metal strip is mounted
on top of EBG surface and excited such that one port acts
as a source and the other as a matched load. The simulation
Fig. 6. Suspended Strip line model for surface wave
suppression characterization
 Usman Ali, Sadiq Ullah, Jalal Khan, Muhammad Shafi, Babar Kamal, Abdul Basir, James A Flint and Rob D. Seager
setup for surface wave characterization is shown in Fig. 6.
The simulated reflection phase, impedance and scattering
(S) parameters of the proposed EBG surface are shown in
Fig. 7. The surface gives in-phase (0o) reflection at 2.4
GHz and behaves like a Perfect Magnetic Conductor
(PMC) at this frequency as shown in Fig. 7(a). The
simulated reflection phase varies from +90o to -90o
within the 2.2 GHz to 2.54 GHz band. Within this band
the surface behaves as an Artificial Magnetic Conductor
(AMC). The surface acts as a high impedance (≈1.2 kΩ)
surface within the 2.35 to 2.5 GHz frequency band (Fig.
7a). The surface offers a maximum impedance of ≈ 2kΩ at
the resonant frequency (2.4 GHz). The transmission
coefficient (S21) is minimum (< -40 dB) within a specific
band of frequencies (from 2.34 to 2.57 GHz) centered at
2.4 GHz (Fig.7b). Within this band the transmission of
surface waves is kept to the minimum level. This band of
frequencies within which the surface acts as a high
impedance surface to suppress the surface waves, is
called surface wave Bandgap of the EBG. Outside this
band it is working like an ordinary Perfect Electric
Conductor (PEC).
Since the proposed antenna operates in this band, and
also suffer from the drawback of very low efficiency due to
(a)
(b)
Fig. 7. Unit cell characterization: (a) Simulated reflection
phase and surface impedance; (b) Simulated
scattering (S11, S21)) parameter of EBG showing
band gap behavior
surface waves propagation within the substrate, therefore
replacing the conventional ground plane with this EBG
ground plane will help in enhancing the gain and efficiency
of this antenna.
3.2 Integration of conventional antenna and EBG/
HIS Surface
In this section the conventional wearable patch antenna
is integrated with EBG surface. For this purpose an array
of 5×5 EBG/HIS has been prepared as shown in Fig. 8.
The performance of the antenna is analyzed under normal
and bent conditions, in the presence and absence of human
body.
The return loss of the conventional antenna and
metamaterial inspired antenna is compared in Fig. 9. It is
observed that return loss of metamaterial inspired antenna
has improved to -44 dB at 2.4 GHz, resulting in 2.3 %
(a) Side view (b) Front view
Fig. 8. Metamaterial based microstrip patch antenna: (a)
Side view; (b) Front view
Frequency/GHz
Fig. 9. Return loss comparison of conventional antenna
and antenna on EBG/HIS surface
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 Design and SAR Analysis of Wearable Antenna on Various Parts of Human Body, Using Conventional and Artificial Ground Planes

Table 1. Summary of results (Conventional Vs EBG in Flat Table 2. Properties of human body tissues
condition)
Permittivity Conductivity Loss Density
Tissue
Parameters/ Type of Antenna Conventional Mushroom EBG ( εr ) (S/m) Tangent (Kg/m3)
Frequency (GHz) 2.4 2.414 Skin 31.29 5.0138 0.2835 1100
Return Loss (dB) -36.67 -44.618 Fat 5.28 0.1 0.19382 1100
Gain (dB) 6.091 7.316 Muscle 52.79 1.705 0.24191 1060
Directivity (dBi) 8.849 8.618 Bone 12.661 3.8591 0.25244 1850
Bandwidth (MHz) 97.4 99.7
Efficiency (%age) 52.8 74.04
Beamwidth (Deg) 65.6 95.7
Input impedance (Real Part) 49.58 49.91

Fig. 11. Antenna bent around a four layered model of

human arm of radius r =45 mm: (a) Conventional;
(b) with EBG (via less); (c) with EBG (via)

same as described in [15]. The intrinsic properties of each

Fig. 10. Radiation pattern comparison of Conventional and
EBG/HIS based antenna
increase in -10 dB bandwidth, relative to conventional patch
antenna. The overall performance, particularly efficiency
and beamwidth of the EBG based antenna is relatively
enhanced by 22 % and 30 %, respectively tabulated in
Table 1.
At 2.4 GHz, the simulated gain of the conventional
antenna is (6.091 dB) as shown in Fig. 10. Due to the
high impedance nature of the EBG ground plane, the
gain of the proposed antenna is improved to (7.316 dB).
In addition the radiation efficiency of the EBG based
antenna is increased by (22 %). Both the antennas have a
directional radiation pattern, normal to the plane of the
radiating patch. The EBG based antenna also radiate in a
broader angular span (i.e. beamwidth = 95.7 deg) as
compared to conventional antenna (65.6 deg).
layer are summarized in Table 2.
In this paper the effects of E-plane bending of the
antennas are discussed in three stages:
1) First the 2.4 GHz antenna is bent around the
cylindrical arm phantom and then analyzed in free space in
the absence of the arm. In other words the radius of the
bent antenna is kept equal to the radius of the arm (i.e. 45
mm) and its performance is gauged in free-space in the
absence of the body.
2) The conventional 2.4 GHz antenna is worn on
human arm to investigate its performance (gain, directivity,
efficiency and SAR) in close proximity to the lossy human
body.
3) On-body analysis of the EBG backed 2.4 GHz
antenna in order to investigate the reduction in SAR due to
the high-impedance nature of the EBG ground plane.
The concept of bending the proposed antenna using
conventional and EBG ground planes is illustrated in Fig.
11. The effects of bending and human body on the
performance of the antenna are discussed in the following
paragraphs:

4. Human Phantom Modeling and Bending of 4.1 Off-body analysis

Antenna
In a practical on-body application, the antenna is
presumed to be printed on the garments, and then it is
exposed to bending. For this purpose a simple model
(phantom) of human arm of 45 mm radius is proposed in
this paper. The arm phantom is modelled using CST MWS
and it consists of four layers, i.e. skin, fat, muscle and bone.
The materials and design parameters of the arm are the
In this segment, the bent antenna is analyzed and
compared with the conventional antenna in the absence of
human body using CST Microwave Studio.
4.1.1 One-dimensional (1D) results
Bending affects, the driving point impedance of the
patch antenna, hence the resonant frequency is slightly
shifted towards the left of 2.4 GHz shown in Fig. 12. It is

322 │ J Electr Eng Technol.2016; 12(1): 317-328

 Usman Ali, Sadiq Ullah, Jalal Khan, Muhammad Shafi, Babar Kamal, Abdul Basir, James A Flint and Rob D. Seager
worth mentioning that the antenna retain its operation
within the unlicensed ISM band irrespective of bending.
4.1.2 Two-dimensional (2D) results
The E-plane and H-plane simulated gain of both the
antennas is compared in Fig. 13(a)-(b).
It is clearly shown that due to bending, the maximum
gain of the conventional antenna, along the bore side
Frequency/GHz
Fig. 12. Simulated return loss comparison of conventional
antenna and bent antenna
(a) E-Plane gain
(b) H-Plane gain
Fig. 13. Gain patterns comparisons of conventional antenna
under normal and bent conditions: (a) E-Plane; (b)
H-Plane
direction, is reduced (from 6.091 dB to 5.721 dB). The
conventional antenna (under flat or normal condition)
shows lowest side lobe radiations (-24.3 dB) compared to
the bent antenna (-17.9 dB). It is worth mentioning that the
-3 dB beamwidth of the bent conventional antenna grows
up to (77.8 deg) relative to the normal case (65.6 deg).
Alternatively, the antenna become less directive (8.358
dBi), due to which it has the capability to detect a wider
range of arrival. The H-plane gain pattern shows that the
direction of the main lobe is shifted due to bending, from
(0 deg to 2 deg). In addition the -3 dB beamwidth of the
conventional antenna expands from (64.2 deg to 97.5 deg),
for normal and bent conditions respectively.
4.1.3 Three-dimensional results
The 3D gain pattern, of antenna in normal and bent
conditions are presented in Fig. 14(a) - (b). The maximum
gain of the antenna in normal and bent scenarios is (6.09
dB) and (5.72 dB) respectively which shows that bending
causes reduction in boresight gain of the antenna.
4.2 On-body analysis
4.2.1 1 D results
The lossy nature of human body makes the antenna less
efficient radiator due to impedance mismatch between the
Fig. 14. 3D radiation pattern of (a) conventional antenna;
(b) bent antenna
Fig. 15. On-body reflection coefficient comparison of
conventional and bent antennas around human arm
of 45 mm radius
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 Design and SAR Analysis of Wearable Antenna on Various Parts of Human Body, Using Conventional and Artificial Ground Planes

Table 3. Gain and main lobe comparison of bent antenna in

E (ϕ =90o) and H (ϕ =0o) planes
Antenna/ Gain (dB) Main lobe direction (Deg)
Geometry E-Plane H-Plane E-Plane H-Plane
Conventional 6.10 6.10 0.0 00
Conventional (Bent) 5.90 4.9 0.0 2.0
Vialess EBG (Bent) 5.99 5.6 30 16
EBG (Bent) 6.29 6.0 28 12

Fig. 16. An enlarged view of the Input Impedance on

human body arm, we see that bending causes the
impedance to decrease.

(a)

(a) E-Plan Gain

(b)

(b) H-Plane Gain
Fig. 17. On-body gain patterns comparison of conventional
and bent antennas around human arm of 45 mm:
(a) E-Plane; (b) H-Plane
antenna and transmission line. In this segment the return
loss and input impedance of the EBG based antenna is
analyzed in close proximity of human arm, and the results
are compared with the conventional all-alone normal patch
antenna. When the antennas are worn on the human body
(c)
Fig. 18. Perspective view of 3D-gain pattern of the
proposed 2.4 GHz antenna under bent conditions:
(a) conventional; (b) Vialess EBG; (c) EBG
(arm), bending results in reduction of the driving point
impedance of the antenna, which causes slight detuning
of the resonance frequency as well as a decline in return
loss. It is worth noticing that, under bent conditions, the
metamaterial inspired antenna has reasonably good return
loss as compared to conventional antenna.
4.2.2 2 D results
The E-plane and H-plane simulated gains of the

324 │ J Electr Eng Technol.2016; 12(1): 317-328

 Usman Ali, Sadiq Ullah, Jalal Khan, Muhammad Shafi, Babar Kamal, Abdul Basir, James A Flint and Rob D. Seager

conventional and EBG based antennas are compared in Fig. Table 4. Summary of simulated SAR normalized to 0.5 W
17(a) - (b) respectively. The antenna with the EBG ground (r.m.s) at 2.4 GHz
plane shows satisfactory performance in terms of E and H- 10 g Peak Peak power
plane gain (≥6dB), relative to the conventional and Vialess Antenna Phantom SAR loss density
EBG antennas under bent scenarios. (W/kg) (W/m3)
The maximum gain and main lob direction for all Conventional Flat 0.036 23064
Human Body Arm
configurations are summarized in Table 3, which shows Conventional
(radius=45mm)
8.16 122000
that the EBG backed antenna retain fair gain under body Metamaterial Based Human Body Arm
2.36 37613
worn conditions. (Without Vias) (radius=45mm)
Metamaterial Based Human Body Arm
1.77 31403
(With Vias) (radius=45mm)
4.2.3 3D results

Fig. 18 illustrate the perspective view of 3D-gain pattern

of the conventional antenna and metamaterial based antenna
worn on human body arm of (radius = 45mm). The lossy
human body acts as an absorber of the electromagnetic
radiations hence reducing the peak gain of the antennas.
It is important that the antennas, irrespective of the type
of ground plane, give a fair gain (>5.8 dB), which is
acceptable for on-body communication networks. Due to
the high-impedance nature of the EBG (with Vias), the
surface waves within the substrate are suppressed, which
reduces the backward radiations, thereby minimalizing the
specific absorption rate.

5. Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) Analysis

Specific Absorption Rate analysis of the 2.4 GHz antenna

on flat body phantom and arm has been presented in this
section. Only E-plane bending was considered. The SAR
analysis is carried out using CST Microwave Studio, using
the IEEE C95.3 averaging method. SAR calculations have
been carried out over 10 gram of tissue volume (ICNIRP,
European standard). The safe level for the standard is 2
W/kg for any 10 gram of tissue.
Human body is a chunk of highly conductive and
dielectric material. When the conventional antenna is
operated in close proximity of human body, it is detuned
due to mismatch in impedance, and some portion of the
available power is reflected backwards and absorbed in the
body, which results in higher values of Specific Absorption
Rate (SAR). Therefore, a high-impedance metamaterial
surface has been proposed as an artificial ground plane to
shield or isolate the human body from the adverse effects
of backward radiations, which are responsible for an
increase in the SAR.
Three geometries were considered in this section:
1) Conventional antenna on a 180 mm × 160 mm
rectangular flat body phantom,
2) Conventional antenna bent around human body arm
(radius= 45mm) and
3) Metamaterial inspired antenna bent around human
body arm (radius=45mm).
The snap shots of the SAR and peak power loss density
Fig. 19. Conventional antenna on flat phantom: (a) SAR;
(b) power loss density; conventional antenna bent
around human arm; (c) SAR; (d) Power loss
density; SAR analysis of EBG based antenna bent
around arm; (e) Without Vias; (f) With Vias
at 2.4 GHz have been shown in Fig. 19. The simulated
results are normalized to an R.M.S reference power of
0.5 W illustrated in Table 4.
It is clearly shown in Fig. 19(a) - (b) and Table 4 that for
flat body phantom only small amount of power is absorbed
by the body, showing that the conductive ground plane is
sufficient for shielding the human body. Due to the close
coupling of lossy human body and bending of conventional
antenna around it, most of the power is absorbed in the
body which gives a high value of SAR, averaged over 10 g
of tissue, as shown in Fig. 19(c) - (d).
The metamaterial inspired antenna dramatically reduces
the value of SAR. This is due to HIS behavior of meta-

http://www.jeet.or.kr │ 325
 Design and SAR Analysis of Wearable Antenna on Various Parts of Human Body, Using Conventional and Artificial Ground Planes
material surface using as a ground plane, which provide a
surface wave band gap at the desired frequency. This
surface provide electromagnetic insulation of an antenna
from the body. Therefore, a controlled SAR value had been
obtained below the safe level (<2W/kg (ICNIRP standard)).
The SAR of the proposed antenna is reduced by 69 % and
83.82 % using a 5×5 Vialess and with-via EBG ground
plane, respectively, relative to the conventional antenna, as
shown in Fig. 19(e) - (f).
6. Conclusion
In this paper the design and specific absorption rate
analysis of a 2.4 GHz wearable microstrip patch antenna
on a conventional and electromagnetic bandgap (EBG)
ground planes under normal and bent conditions has been
discussed. For flexibility and conformability purposes,
wearable materials have been used in the design of the
antenna as well as EBG surfaces. Therefore the proposed
antenna is a suitable candidate for body worn applications.
The overall volume of the proposed antenna is 113 × 96.4 x
3 mm3. The metamaterial surface has been used as a high
impedance surface which protects the body from the
hazards of electromagnetic radiations. Due to the surface
wave suppression capability of the EBG, the efficiency of
an antenna has been increased from 52 to 74 %. In addition
due to the EBG ground plane, the 3dB beamwidth of the
antenna is enhanced from 65o to 95o, thereby increasing
the angular coverage range of it. Relatively safer value of
SAR (i.e. 1.77W/kg <2Wkg) has been achieved when the
EBG (with via) based antenna has been worn on human
body. It has been found that the SAR has been abridged
by 83.82% as compare to the conventional antenna
(8.16 W/kg >2W/kg). Due to the lossy nature of the human
body the gain and efficiency of the conventional antenna
has been reduced under flat as well as bent conditions. It is
worth mentioning that the E and H plane gain of the EBG
based antenna is minimally affected under bent conditions.
The proposed antenna can be potentially used in wearable
electronics, sports, rescue, military, communication, and
smart clothing applications, in Industrial, Scientific and
Medical (ISM) band. Prototypes of the antennas will be
fabricated to validate the numerical results.
Acknowledgements
The authors of the manuscript thankfully acknowledge
CST and Loughborough University for their support in the
numerical analysis of the proposed work.
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Usman Ali is a postgraduate research
student in the Department of Telecom-
munication Engineering, University of
Engineering and Technology (UET)
Peshawar. He did his Bachelors from
UET Peshawar in 2012. His research
interests include metamaterials, signal
processing, electromagnetic Bandgap
structures and wearable antennas. Currently he is working
as a Lab Engineer in the same Department.
Sadiq Ullah is Head of the Telecom-
munication Engineering Department,
University of Engineering & Tech-
nology, Peshawar, Pakistan. He received
B.Sc. Electrical Engineering from Uni-
versity of Engineering and Technology,
Peshawar, Pakistan. He achieved his
M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from
University of Engineering and Technology Taxila, Pakistan.
In 2007, he joined the Department of Electronic and
Electrical Engineering, at Loughborough University, U.K.,
and was awarded Ph.D. for his research in the field of
design and measurement of metamaterial based antennas in
2010. He worked as an Assistant Manager (Electronics) in
a public sector R & D organization in Islamabad, where his
main responsibilities were hardware, software co-design,
designing and testing of high precession electronics, test
equipment. His research mainly focuses on design and
measurement of low-profile antennas, metamaterials, RFID
& reconfigurable antennas, 5G antennas, SAR analysis of
implantable and wearable antennas. He has been worked as
a Research Associate at Loughborough University, where
he researched on the propagation effects of rain, snow, ice,
fog and forest in millimeter wave band. He published his
research in international conferences and journals.
Jalal Khan is Assistant Professor at
the Department of Telecommunication
Engineering, University of Engineering
& Technology, Peshawar, Pakistan. He
received B.Sc. Electrical Engineering
from University of Engineering and
Technology, Peshawar, Pakistan. He
achieved his M.Sc. from Bradford
University, UK. Currently he is pursuing his PhD in 5G
antennas in Telecommunication Engineering, in UET
Peshawar, Pakistan.
http://www.jeet.or.kr │ 327
 Design and SAR Analysis of Wearable Antenna on Various Parts of Human Body, Using Conventional and Artificial Ground Planes

Muhammad Shafi is currently working Rob D Seager was born in Botswana

as associate professor at Computer
Science Department, Islamic University
Madinah, Saudi Arabia. He did his
PhD from Loughborough University,
UK in 2010 and since then he has been
involved in teaching and research. His
research interests include, image pro-
cessing, communication and antennas.
Babar Kamal, is currently a PhD
student in School of Marine Science
and Technology, NPU, China. He did
his Bachelors from BUITEMS, Quetta
in 2012 and Masters from Telecom-
munication Engineering Department,
UET Peshawar in 2015. His research
interests include metamaterials, and
wearable antennas.
and schooled in Africa, Rob studied
Electronics at Bangor University in
Wales, before working with Hewlett
Packard Ltd in Scotland. After Post-
graduate studies in Bangor he moved
to Loughborough University and is
working as a Senior Lecturer in
Communications Division. His current research interests
are switched antenna systems, polarization dependent
surfaces, propagation control within buildings, antennas,
tunable and switchable microwave filters, fabric antennas
and systems and frequency selective surfaces

Abdul Basir is currently doing MSc

leading to PhD in Ulsan University,
South Korea. He received B.Sc.
Telecommunication Engineering from
University of Engineering and Tech-
nology, Peshawar, Pakistan in 2015.
Currently he is working on design and
analysis of implantable and wearable
antennas.

James A Flint is Senior Lecturer in

Wireless Systems Engineering and
Head of the Communications Research
Division within the School. His research
focuses on various aspects of wireless
systems, especially in the area of
transducer design in electromagnetic
and acoustics. He has a keen interest in
biomimetics, ultrasound and on converting systems found
in nature into workable engineering solutions. Dr Flint
was previously employed in the automotive industry and
maintains an interest in safety-critical systems, installed
performance of antennas and electromagnetic compatibility.
In recent years Dr Flint has had a particular interest in band
gap structures (both electromagnetic and acoustic) and
has several publications in the area. Dr Flint's external
activities include acting as an elected representative on the
Council of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

328 │ J Electr Eng Technol.2016; 12(1): 317-328